Child abductions in the Russian invasion of

Ukraine
During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia has forcibly
transferred thousands of Ukrainian children to areas under its
Child abductions in the
control, assigned them Russian citizenship, forcibly adopted them Russian invasion of
into Russian families, and created obstacles for their reunification Ukraine
with their parents and homeland.[3] Evidence of this has been Part of the Russian invasion of
collected during investigations conducted by several international Ukraine
organizations and groups, including the Office of the United
Location Russian-occupied
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, The International
territories of Ukraine
Criminal Court, Amnesty International and Missing Children
Europe, and by journalists for media outlets such as The Observer Date 24 February 2022 –
and Al Jazeera.[4][5] The United Nations has stated that these present
deportations constitute war crimes.[3][6] The International Criminal Target Ukrainian children
Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for President Vladimir Putin
(who has explicitly supported the forced adoptions, including by Attack type Deportation · forced
enacting legislation to facilitate them)[7] and Children's Rights displacement ·
Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for their alleged population transfer ·
involvement.[8] According to international law, including the 1948 Russification
Genocide Convention, such acts constitute genocide if done with Deaths 464 as of
intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a nation or ethnic group.[9][a] 21 March 2023[1]

Ukrainian children have been abducted by the Russian state after Victims 16,000[1] –
their parents had been arrested by Russian occupation authorities 307,000[2]
or killed in the invasion,[10] or after becoming separated from their Perpetrators Vladimir Putin
parents in an active war zone.[11] Children have also been
Maria Lvova-Belova
abducted from Ukrainian state institutions in occupied areas, and
through children's "summer camps" on Russian territory.[10] The Litigation International
abducted children have been subject to Russification;[7][11] raising Criminal Court arrest
children of war in a foreign nation and culture may constitute an warrants for Putin
act of genocide if intended to erase their national identity.[7] and Lvova-Belova

Estimates of the number of children involved range from 16,000[1] to over 300,000.[2] The Office of the
Ukrainian Prosecutor General said in December 2022 that nearly 800 had died or disappeared during the
process of deportation.[1]

Overview

Abductions
The vast majority of the abducted children have been abducted from southern and eastern Ukraine
(Kherson, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk and Mykolaiv regions).[10]

Parental separation

Some children have been abducted after becoming separated from their parents while fleeing active war
zones,[10][11] and some have been abducted after their parents were detained in filtration camps.[10]

State institutions

Children have been abducted from Ukrainian state-run institutions such as orphanages,[11][4][12] group
homes,[11] care homes, hospitals,[12] and boarding schools;[13][11] many of the forcibly transferred children
were taken from orphanages and group homes. Most children in the care of Ukrainian state institutions
(including some of those in orphanages)[14] are not orphans but were only temporarily or permanently
placed under the care of the state by parents facing personal hardships such as poverty, illness, or addiction.
The Ukrainian state facilitates the voluntary temporary or permanent placement of children under the care
of state institutions by parents.[11] Some 90% of Ukrainian children living under state care were thus
"social orphans" – children with family members who are for various reasons unable to care for them.[10]
The United Nations estimated that some 90,000 children resided in state-run homes in Ukraine prior to the
2022 invasion. Regardless of whether the children had living parents or were indeed wards of the state,
such forced transfers during wartime likely constitute a war crime.[11]

Summer camp stays

Parents in Russian-occupied areas have been encouraged by Russian occupation authorities, Russian
forces, and teachers to send their children to so-called "summer camps"[15] (in fact re-education camps for
Ukrainian children) for a respite from the Russo-Ukrainian War. Some parents were pressured to allow their
children to go to the camps, while others agreed in order to get their children out of an active war zone, or
to take advantage of an opportunity to provide them a free trip (many families that agreed to send their
children were economically disadvantaged) or better living conditions amid the ravages of war.[14]

Some of these children have been subsequently detained in the camps indefinitely, while others were
returned weeks or months later than promised. Some parents who sent their children to the "summer
camps" were subsequently told that their children would be returned only if their parents pick them up in
person, but travel between Ukraine and Russia is difficult, dangerous and expensive, some camps are
located far from Ukraine (including as far as Magadan Oblast in the Russian Far East, which abuts the
Pacific coast), and many children are from low-income families that cannot afford the journey (some had to
sell their belongings to afford the journey and travel through four countries to collect their children from the
camps); even relatives granted power of attorney by parents are not allowed to collect the children, and all
men (including parents) of ages between 18 and 60 are forbidden from leaving Ukraine as they are eligible
for conscription and additionally risk "filtration" and possible persecution when attempting to enter Russia,
so that in practice, in most cases only the mothers are able to retrieve the children. In some instances, camp
officials said that the return of children was dependent upon Russia recapturing since liberated Ukrainian
territory where the child's family lives, and one child was told that he would not be returned home due to
his "pro-Ukrainian views". Some children were retrieved through intervention by the Ukrainian
government. Parents' ability to communicate with their children during their stay in the camps has been
curtailed, and parents have been denied information about their child's status.[14]

Allegations of maltreatment

According to witness testimonies obtained by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, some
of the children have experienced poor living conditions, inadequate care, and verbal abuse while living
under the custody of the Russian state.[3] The Ukrainian government has claimed that some children have
experienced sexual exploitation after being forcibly transferred to Russia.[15]

Russian policies

Adoptions

Russian law prohibits adoptions of children who are citizens of other countries by Russian citizens without
the consent of the child's home country. In May 2022, Vladimir Putin signed a decree[7] facilitating the
granting of Russian citizenship to Ukrainian children to enable their permanent adoption into Russian
families - this change represents a legal obstacle to future reunification of the abducted children with their
Ukrainian families[7][16] or their repatriation to Ukraine.[16]

The Russian government has created a register of Russian families that may adopt Ukrainian children, and
a hotline for Russian families seeking to adopt Ukrainian children from Donbas. Adoptive families receive
a cash payment for each adopted Ukrainian child that is granted Russian citizenship.[7] Lvova-Belova has
suggested the creation of a database of Ukrainian (ostensible) orphans to improve matching of these
children with prospective adoptive families in occupied Ukraine or Russia, and expressed a wish to
systematise the adoption process.[16]

Russification

According to The New York Times, "Russian officials have made clear that their goal is to replace any
childhood attachment to home with a love for Russia".[11] Upon arriving in Russia, the children are placed
in homes and subjected to re-education.[17]

During the occupation of Novopskov, occupation authorities threatened to deprive parents of parental rights
if their child did not attend a school with a Russian curriculum.[18]

Re-education camps

In 2022, the Russian government established a large-scale system of at least 43 children's camps in Russia
and Russia-occupied Crimea (most of which previously served as children's summer resorts) the main
purpose of which appears to be "integrating children from Ukraine into the Russian government's vision of
national culture, history, and society", according to a report by Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian
Research Lab. Children in such camps have been subjected to Russification, Russian state propaganda, and
military education (including firearm training). Children have also been provided with formal education in
accordance with Russia's educational standards (either at the camps or at local schools) in an effort to steer
them towards attending university in Russia.[14]
Parents in Russian-occupied areas are encouraged or coerced to send their children to these camps
(described to them as children's "summer camps") for a respite from the war, with the children subsequently
subject to indoctrination during their stay and sometimes not returned to the parents as promised. Orphans,
children from Ukrainian state institutions, and children who have become separated from their legal
guardians due to the conflict are also sent to these camps before their eventual adoption and/or placement in
foster care in Russia. At least 6,000 Ukrainian children have attended such camps; analysis of information
from public accounts and satellite imagery has indicated the number of children housed in such camps to be
far higher.[14]

All levels of the Russian government - federal, regional, and local - are involved in the operation of the
camps, and their operation is also supported by Russian occupation authorities and proxies, and members of
Russia's civil society and private sector. Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova have promoted the
camps.[14]

Propaganda

The domestic narrative of the Russian state is that abandoned children are rescued from the ravages of war
by the magnanimous Russian state.[10][11][12] The forced transfer of Ukrainian children forms part of a
broader propaganda strategy by Vladimir Putin attempting to portray Ukraine as part of the Russian nation,
justify the invasion,[11] and bolster support for the war.[12] The Russian state has carefully crafted the
portrayal of the forced transfers of children to the Russian public. Russian state television has broadcast
footage of Russian officials handing out teddy bears to newly arrived abducted children, and Russian
officials in Donetsk have invited reporters to events where gifts were handed out to abducted children.[11]

Preventing repatriation and family reunification

Many parents wish to reunite with their children (some do not, either due to financial reasons or previous
estrangement). Russian authorities do not make any attempt to contact parents to notify them that their
children are in the custody of the Russian state.[11] Likewise, they do not release any information regarding
the identities of the transferred children, making it difficult for Ukrainian and international authorities to
locate and identify the children.[10] The first and last names of the abducted children are changed, making it
more difficult to track down and identify the children.[19][20] Even in cases where parents have successfully
tracked down their children and formally applied to the Russian authorities to be reunited with them,
Russian officials have attempted to pressure or persuade the parents and children to consent to transfer,
promising creature comforts and a better life. In cases where parents (or other legal guardian) and children
are unable to establish contact or parents are unable or unwilling to personally come collect the children,
children are deported to Russia even if they personally express a desire to remain in Ukraine.[11] Abducted
children have been lied to by Russian officials about their parents having abandoned them.[7][4]

History
Russia started transferring children from Ukrainian territories as early as 2014, the first year of the Russo-
Ukrainian War.[7][21]

In early February 2022, Russia "evacuated" 500 supposed orphans from Donetsk Oblast to Russian
territory, supposedly due to a risk of a Ukrainian attack on the seperatist Donetsk People's Republic.[14]

The first reports of forced deportations to Russia as part of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine came
mid-March 2022, during the siege of Mariupol.[22] The same month, Russian children's rights
commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova has stated that a group of Ukrainian children transferred to Russia from
Mariupol had initially asserted their Ukrainian identity, but that it had since transformed into a love for
Russia, saying that she had adopted one of the children herself.[7]

On 22 March 2022, Ukraine and U.S. authorities claimed more than 2,300 children had been kidnapped by
Russian forces from the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts.[23][24]

On 30 May 2022, Vladimir Putin signed a decree that streamlined the process of adopting Ukrainian
orphans or those without parental care and giving them Russian citizenship.[7][25][26]

According to a May 2022 report by the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights in Montreal and the
New Lines Institute in Washington, there are "reasonable grounds to conclude" that Russia is in breach of
two articles of the 1948 Genocide Convention, among them the forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to
Russia, in itself a genocidal act.[9]

By 11 April, two-thirds of Ukraine's 7.5 million children had been displaced according to the U.N.[27]
Ukraine's human rights commissioner, Lyudmila Denysova, and U.N. ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya, stated
at that time that more than 120,000 children had been deported to Russia.[28][27] By 26 May, more than
238,000 Ukrainian children were reported to have been deported to Russian territory.[25]

Ukraine raised the issue at a meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
in early June, where the head of Ukraine's mission, Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk, quoted a message from a
Ukrainian child who had been forcibly adopted despite having close living relations; addressed to his aunt,
it read, in part, "They say I'm an orphan. But I'm not an orphan, I have you, I have grandparents. There are
so many children like me here. They say they want to leave us in Russia. And I don't want to stay in
Russia!"[29]

According to Ukrainska Pravda, Russia has taken 267 orphans from Mariupol to Rostov to be made
Russian citizens, supervised by Maria Lvova-Belova. It also reported that Russian authorities had looked
for and collected orphaned children, to be taken to an unknown destination.[30]

Sky News released CCTV footage dated June 2022 of Russian FSB officials entering an orphanage
Kherson to search for orphans. Aware of the risk of child abductions, the staff hid the children prior to their
arrival. Finding the orphanage empty, the FSB agents seized records, computers, and the CCTV system
from the orphanage in an apparent effort to track down the missing children. Russian authorities
subsequently sent abducted 15 children to be housed in the orphanage, only to be taken away by the
Russian occupiers as they retreated from Kherson. Russian forces also successfully abducted children from
a different Kherson orphanage, an eyewitness told Sky News.[31]

In June 2022, Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the National Defense Management Center, claimed 1,936,911
Ukrainians had been deported to Russia, of whom 307,423 were children.[32]

On 7 September a United Nations official reported that there were credible accusations that Russian forces
had sent Ukrainian children to Russia for adoption as part of a forced deportation programme, and the US
ambassador informed the UN Security Council that more than 1,800 Ukrainian children had been
transferred to Russia in July alone.[33]

Child abduction during "filtration" procedures was documented in a 10 November 2022 Amnesty
International report entitled "Russia’s Unlawful Transfer And Abuse Of Civilians In Ukraine During
'Filtration'". An 11-year-old boy testified to Amnesty International:[16]
 They took my mom to another tent. She was being questioned... They told me I was going to
be taken away from my mom... I was shocked... They didn’t say anything about where my
mom was going. A lady from Novoazovsk [child protection] service said maybe my mom
would be let go... I didn’t get to see my mom... I have not heard from her since.[16]

Reactions

Ukraine

Ukrainian authorities have claimed Putin's decree to be a way to

"legalize the abduction of children from the territory of Ukraine".
They have maintained this "grossly violate[s]" the 1949 Geneva
Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time
of War, and the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the
Child.[25]

The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine also believes that the actions may
qualify as a forcible transfer of children from one human group to
another.[25] In a statement: "The most serious international crimes
against children committed by Russian high-ranking officials and
servicemen in Ukraine will be investigated, and the perpetrators
will be prosecuted. Russia will not be able to avoid the strictest
A man dressed up as Vladimir Putin
accountability."[25] in central Helsinki, Finland

United Nations

UNICEF Emergency Programs Director Manuel Fontaine told CBS News that UNICEF was "looking into
how we can track or help on that", though stating they did not have ability to investigate at the moment.[27]

Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, announced on 15 June 2022
that her agency had started an investigation into allegations of children forcibly deported from Ukraine to
the Russian Federation.[34]

On 15 March 2023, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
released a report declaring these forced transfers of children are illegal and a war crime. It broadly gave
three categories of deported children: those who lost contact with their parents due to the Russian invasion,
those who were separated when their parents were sent to a Russian filtration camp, and those who were in
institutions. The report concluded:

International humanitarian law prohibits the evacuation of children by a party to the armed
conflict, with the exception of a temporary evacuation where compelling reasons relating to the
health or medical treatment of the children or, except in occupied territory, their safety, so
requires. The written consent of parents or legal guardians is required. In none of the situations
which the Commission has examined, transfers of children appear to have satisfied the
requirements set forth by international humanitarian law. The transfers were not justified by
safety or medical reasons. There seems to be no indication that it was impossible to allow the
children to relocate to territory under Ukrainian Government control... The Commission has
 concluded that the situations it has examined concerning the transfer and deportation of
children, within Ukraine and to the Russian Federation respectively, violate international
humanitarian law, and amount to a war crime.[6]

Civil society

On 21 December 2022, a French NGO, "For Ukraine, for their Freedom and Ours!", submitted via the law
firm Vigo a communication to Karim Khan, Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, to
contribute to "the investigation opened on 2 March 2022 by the Office of the Prosecutor, upon referral of
the situation in Ukraine by a coordinated group of States Parties to the Rome Statute".[35] The
communication "relates to the forcible transfer and large-scale deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia,
in a clear attempt by the Russian authorities to erase, at least in part, Ukrainians as a national group with a
distinct identity. These facts are likely to constitute several of the crimes listed in Article 5 of the Rome
Statute, and more specifically the crime of genocide (Article 6-e) and crimes against humanity (Article 7-
d)".

Genocide scholar Timothy D. Snyder tweeted: "Kidnapping children en masse and seeking to assimilate
them in a foreign culture is genocide according to Article 2 Section E of the 1948 genocide
convention."[36]

Sanctions
Russian children's rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova has been sanctioned by the United States, the
European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.[7]

Arrest warrants
On 17 March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Putin and Lvova-Belova,
alleging criminal responsibility for the unlawful deportation and transfer of population (children) from
occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia.[37][38][39][40] It decided that they are covered by articles 8(2)(a)(vii)
and article 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute and intended by Russia as permanent.[40] The charges carry a
potential life sentence.[38] It is the first time the court has issued an arrest warrant against the leader of a
permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.[37] ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said, "We
must ensure that those responsible for alleged crimes are held accountable and that children are returned to
their families and communities. We cannot allow children to be treated as if they are the spoils of war."[38]

See also
Allegations of genocide of Ukrainians in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Canadian Indian residential school system – Schools to assimilate Indigenous children
Sixties Scoop – Canadian policy of taking Indigenous children from their parents and
placed into adoption.
Cultural genocide – Type of genocide
Kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany – Cultural genocide of children in Nazi Germany
Lebensborn – Nazi eugenics program
Little Danes experiment – 1951 Greenlandic social experiment
 Stolen Generations – Indigenous Australian children forcibly acculturated into White
Australian society
War crimes in the Russian invasion of Ukraine – Violations of the laws of war during the
2022 Russo-Ukrainian War
Yemenite Children Affair – Disappearance of thousands of children in 1950s Israel

Notes
a. Article II. In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed
with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as
such: ...
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

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External links
"Russia abducting Ukrainian children, putting up for adoption in Russia" (https://www.jpost.c
om/international/article-719837). The Jerusalem Post. 17 October 2022.
Michela Moscufo; Britt Clennett; Angus Hines (22 November 2022). "Ukrainian families
reunite with children they say Russia kidnapped, put up for adoption" (https://abcnews.go.co
m/International/ukrainian-families-reunite-children-russia-kidnapped-put-adoption/story?id=9
3798931). US: ABC News.

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